Stars
by Aratanaru
Summary: Itachi is a droid with a mission. Sakura is a stowaway. Both find themselves on an unmanned spacecraft hurtling towards an undisclosed location.


_notes: this was inspired by "Nickelodeon: Chapter 37" by Douman Seiman._

 **xxx**

The droid finds her huddled beneath the cooling system, wedged right in the midst of pipes and circuits and definitely _not_ where someone should be. In fact, no one besides itself should be on the spacecraft at all. And yet there she is.

She stares up at the droid, wide-eyed, body stiff with fear. "I-I'm sorry!" she splutters, almost immediately. "I'm sorry, I just-I couldn't get a ticket onto the last shuttle, but I really wanted to see space, at least once, so I snuck up on the next spacecraft...I'm really sorry! When we land, I promise I'll pay all the penalties!"

It watches as she waves her hands in front of her in a defensive manner.

" _Please_ ," she begs, bright green eyes imploring, "Let me stay on here! I just-I just really really wanted to see what space was like..."

"Alright," the droid says, "Come up from there." It extends a long, metal arm out towards her.

 **xxx**

"This isn't what you promised me!"

It regards her serenely as she fists her hands through the thick, heavy material of the space suit. The droid had pulled it out of a closet, quickly strapping it on her before Sakura could fully register the gravity of the situation. And now, here she is, ready to be forcefully ejected from the spacecraft and into space. Utter joy.

"But it is. By sending you out there-" it gestures out the window, out into the dark, inky abyss of stars and galaxies, "-I'd be putting you out into space. And then you'd get to not only see what it is like, but also _be_ in it."

"B-But I'll _die_! There's no way I can survive out in _space_ for so long! And I don't even know where the closest inhabited planet is!" Some of her pastel-pink hair sticks up, clinging to the inside of her helmet due to static friction.

"You'll be fine," it insists coolly. "Now-"

"How can I be _fine_?!" she all but shrieks. The droid has begun to push her towards a door labelled _EMERGENCY EXIT_. "And also, why can't you just let me stay on the spacecraft?! It's not like I'm going to blow anything up or-"

"I was told-no, programmed-that in the event of any stowaways on this _no-man spacecraft_ , I am to eject them immediately."

"But _why_?!"

"Because you have broken the law and are a potentially dangerous intruder, of course." Its speech is measured and crisp, its tone matter-of-fact. "Now, come on."

"L-Let me go!" She protests, fighting against its hold. Roughly, she shoves away its arm and even contemplates biting it for good measure. It's probably not a good idea, though, considering the damned thing is constructed of metal and wires and non-biteable material. "Stop pushing me out of here, you heartless bastard!"

"I'm a droid, not a heartless bastard," it replies. "Though it _is_ true that I have no heart."

"It doesn't matter!" Sakura realizes with dismay that, despite her best efforts, the droid has already managed to push her a mere foot away from her imminent doom. Otherwise known as the ejection chamber. "You're a monster!"

"I'm droid, not a monster," it insists, with infinite patience. "And please, stop thrashing." It continues to push her closer and closer to the ejection chamber, the door looming. Desperate and cornered, Sakura lashes out violently, blindly swinging a fist right at its core.

Its state-of-the-art, metal-plated, _very_ hard core.

She hears a sickening _crack_ and then feels searing pain burn from her wrist, inflaming the surrounding area. _Fuck_.

 **xxx**

"You know, that really was not a good idea."

"Shut up! This is all your fault!" she snaps back, tears still stinging the edges of her eyes. Tenderly, she cradles her heavily bandaged wrist. The space suit is discarded on the floor, helmet sitting innocuously beside her.

"I apologize for my inability to control the hardness and density of my physical makeup," the droid replies sassily.

Sakura pouts. "Whatever." She bites her lip and stares at the crumpled heap of suit consideringly; maybe the droid isn't as heartless as she originally thought it was. It at least had the decency to stop trying to push her to her imminent demise in order to treat her- _sprained? broken? fractured?_ -wrist. "But thanks."

"Don't worry about it," it replies. "Just be glad there are some medical supplies on the craft. And also be glad that you only sprained the thing. Still, though. Humans can be so fragile."

She rolls her eyes. " _Thanks_. But why _are_ there medical supplies? And spacesuits? Why would they think to put those on a _solo droid-operated_ _ship_?"

"This spacecraft was originally in operation as a manned ship. It seems that the team was in such a hurry to launch this back into space that they did not have enough time to clean it out. That is why there are space suits and medical supplies still left on here."

She perks up. "So by that logic.. there should be food, right? I'm kind of hungry, now that I think about it."

"No."

" _What_?"

"There is no food," the droid replies. "I have already conducted a complete inventory of the ship. Besides me-the only _authorized_ passenger of this ship-and the cargo, there are a couple of spacesuits in the closet, a fire extinguisher, and a standard first-aid kit. That is all."

"Oh god," Sakura groans, despairingly. "I'm going to starve here. And die of thirst. Man, at least I got to see space..."

The droid lets out a low chuckle. "I was just kidding. Yes, there is food. And water. The jerky is in the top cabinet, to the right."

 **xxx**

Even with the advanced medical practices as well as the incredible technologies of the droid, it still takes a few days for her sprained wrist to heal. In the meantime, Sakura finds good company with the droid.

"Why did you wish to space so much that you were willing to risk your life to sneak onto this ship?"

She pauses in her gnawing, turns to look at the droid. "Well," she begins, "I'm not sure just how informed you are on the situation back in my home planet but..." Sakura sighs and puts down her half-eaten piece of jerky. "I'm an orphan. My parents died when I was young due to the still-raging war."

"I am sorry for your loss."

"It's okay," she says, even though it kind of isn't. "It was a while ago. I don't remember them much, anyways. Plus, there are many others like me-especially after the last meteor strike from Planet-68C. Razed an entire city with one blow."

"Ah," the droid says. "Yes, I know of that attack. It was all over the _Universal Times_."

Sakura shrugs. "So yeah. I grew up all alone, and somewhere along the line, I developed this deep interest in space. I think it started with the sky, actually. I would stare up at it every night and wonder about all the other planets out there. If there were any that were peaceful, that had people on their surface who did not have to wake up in the middle of the night-or afternoon, or any part of their day for that matter-to warning bells and sirens and screams."

"You wished for a place to escape to, away from the chaos."

"Yeah," she agrees, slowly. "I guess it's that. But I mean, over time, I also really wanted to explore, you know? That's my dream: I want to find and visit all the planets out there. I want to find a place where I can settle down and live peacefully, where my friends and I can go to school and have fun and do all the normal stuff they do in the books."

"A dream indeed," the droid muses. "And so you bet everything on it on this ship. Did something in particular happen to push you to do such a thing?"

"Another attack," she replies. "Terrible. Lots of deaths, as usual. But this time-I don't know, actually. It's just that this time I decided I was tired of it all, the chaos. I decided that instead of just bearing with everything and staring up at the sky dreaming, that I would actually put my foot down and _do something_."

The droid lets out another loose chuckle. "You've got courage. And a wired determination. I like it."

 **xxx**

"Why did you give me medical treatment if you're going to kill me anyways?" Sakura asks. The question had been running around in her head for a while.

The droid turns away from the control panel to look at her. "I never had any intention to kill you."

She gapes. "What do you _mean-"_

"I mean, I gave you a spacesuit, didn't I? If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have gone through all that trouble."

"...I suppose you _do_ have a point there."

"You know," it says. "The reason why I was so eager to push you out was because this ship has a fuel shortage. It has just enough fuel to carry both me and the ship's cargo to its destination. With you-an unaccounted variable-we will not have enough, and not only will this mission fail, you will also die."

"Oh." She unwraps her wrist carefully, touching it lightly with her fingers to check for pain. None comes. She's healed perfectly. "I mean, in comparison to the ship, I'm really not _that_ heavy, so maybe-you said there was cargo, right? Would it hurt to throw a box or two off?"

The droid shakes its head. "Unfortunately, no. The cargo I was referring to is in actuality a singular package, and it takes priority over both your life and mine."

"I see..."

"I would also leave this ship to you, but unfortunately it cannot be piloted and maintained without me," the droid explains further.

The weight of the situation settles over her, heavy and crushing. With a sigh of determined finality, Sakura turns to the droid with an apologetic smile on her face. "It's okay," she says. "This whole thing is my fault anyway..."

 **xxx**

"Since I'm going to go out there anyway, I might as well tell you that I was lying." Her voice is probably muffled and Sakura can only hope the droid can hear her through the thick door of the ejection chamber.

It pauses its hand at the lever. "Lying? About what?"

"I never had any money," she says, smiling wryly. "Even if we landed, I wouldn't have been able to pay the penalty fees anyways."

"Is that so?" It says. "Well, since you said that, I may as well tell you that I was lying too, about the fuel thing. And also, I was never even informed of what to do in the case of a stowaway. "

Sakura feels her stomach drop. _What_...? Did he just con her into her own death...?

"This is actually a terrorist ship in disguise," the droid says. "The cargo on board that I told you about-it is actually a bomb with enough power to completely obliterate an entire planet."

 _Holy shit_.

"And it is my directive to detonate it upon reaching the ship's destination."

Sakura is speechless, unable to do anything but stare, completely baffled, at the droid.

"Humans killing humans..." the droid continues. "From my perspective, it is something completely absurd. To blow up one's own race for such trivial reasons... to take away and ruin the lives of those not even remotely involved in whatever matters you are in disagreement with... Ridiculous."

Her heart is beating fast in her chest. Memories, fast and raw and _horrifying_ flash through her mind. The war. Her parents. Friends. The fields are full of corpses.

"Unfortunately, I cannot override my programming," the droid laments. "But by letting you go, in this way... I can express some form of my objection to all this mindless destruction. Right now, your suit is sending out a distress signal; help will come to you soon."

Sakura continues stare at the droid through the window of the ejection chamber, tears beginning to blur her vision.

"I never introduced myself, did I?" she says. "Well, my name is Sakura."

"My name is Itachi."

"Thank you, Itachi," she says, voice thick with emotion.

"No, thank _you_ , Sakura, for letting me save your life."

And then he pulls the lever.

 **xxx**

Space is everything she'd imagined it to be and more. The stars are really a lot brighter, and the asteroids are just as large as she'd imagined. It's so dark and lonely though, but at least the silence is a sweet respite from all the noise of her home planet.

Sakura doesn't know how long she stays out there, drifting aimlessly amongst the stars, but when they find her she's tired and hungry and thirsty.

Then they ask her how she ended up like she did and where she came from and she tells them that she was on a trip with a friend. That they both had dreams, and that they were both on a mission. That they both wished for peace.

And when they ask her where her friend is, she tells them that they are in her heart. That they will probably never meet again and they saved her life because it was part of their dream, it was part of the cause that they so believed in.

"What was their name?"

"Itachi," she whispers, a slow bitterness creeping up her throat. "Their name was Itachi."

 **xxx**

 _a/n: wow what a bright start on a new platform_

 _thank you for reading :')_


End file.
